Thursday, 24 March 2011

The press missed out on Ed Balls' Budget tirade

Ed Balls has spent a lot of his political life in government, so he probably wouldn't like to acknowledge a simple truth: he's a natural opposition politician.

The shadow chancellor was in full flow this afternoon as he laid into George Osborne on the Budget.

But with the majority of journalists either working their way through the main red book and its supporting documents with fine toothcombs, or just feeling that the main event is over and they can relax, there were next to no hacks in the Commons chamber.

By parliamentary tradition it's the leader of the opposition who gives the initial reply immediately after the Budget has been delivered.

This is why Balls had to wait until today for his turn, when no one is listening. Here's a sketch of what they were missing.